Joanna Newsom-Monkey Bear chords

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Monkey & Bear by Joanna Newsom
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- Chords interpreted by CM -
- Transposed down 2 half-steps -
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CmDb
Down in the green hay
CGF
Where monkey and bear usually lay
CmAbCm
They woke from a stable-boy's cry
CmDb
He said; someone come quick!
CGF
The horses got loose, got grass-sick!
CmAbCm
They'll flounder, feign, they'll die
FmG
What is now known by the sorrel and the roan?
DmG
By the chestnut, and the bay, and the gelding grey?
CmGF
It is: stay by the gate you are given
CmGAb
And remain in your place, for your season
EbBbEb
And had the overfed dead but listened
CmGF
To that high-fence, horse-sense, wisdom...
CmDb
Did you hear that, Bear?
CGF
Said Monkey, We'll get out of here, fair and square
CmAbCm
They left the gate open wide
CmF
So, my bride
CmF
Here is my hand, where is your paw?
CmF
Try and understand my plan, Ursala
CmF
My heart is a furnace
CmF
Full of love that's just, and earnest
CmF
Now; you know that we must unlearn this
CmF
Allegiance to a life of service
CmF
And no longer answer to that heartless
CmF
Hay-monger, nor be his accomplice
CmF
(that charlatan, with artless hustling!)
CmF
But; Ursala, we've got to eat something
CmF
And earn our keep, while still within
CmF
The borders of the land that man has girded
CmF
(all double-bolted and tight-fisted!)
CmF
Until we reach the open country
CmF
A-steeped in milk and honey
CmF
Will you keep your fancy clothes on, for me?
CmF
Can you bear a little longer to wear that leash?
CmF
My love, I swear by the air I breathe:
AbCm
Sooner or later, you'll bare your teeth
CmF
But for now, just dance, darling
CmG
C'mon, will you dance, my darling?
CmEb
Darling, there's a place for us
AbFm
Can we go, before I turn to dust?
CmEb
Oh my darling,
AbCm
There's a place for us
Oh darling
C'mon will you dance, my darling?
Oh, the hills are groaning with excess
Like a table ceaselessly being set
Oh my darling, we will get there yet
CmDb
They trooped past the guards,
CGF
Past the coops, and the fields, and the farmyards
CmAbCm
All night, till finally:
The space they gained grew
Much farther than the stone that bear threw
To mark where they'd stop for tea
FmG
But walk a little faster and don't look backwards
DmG
Your feast is to the East, which lies a little past the pasture
CmGF
When the blackbirds hear tea whistling, they rise and clap
CmGAb
And their applause caws the kettle black
EbBbEb
And we won't have none of that!
CmGF
Move along, Bear; there, there; that's that
CmDb
Though cast in plaster
CmGF
Our Ursala's heart beat faster
CmAbCm
Than monkey's ever will
F
But still;
CmF
They have got to pay the bills
CmF
Hadn't they?
CmF
That is what the monkey'd say
CmF
So, with the courage of a clown, or a cur
CmF
Or a kite, jerking tight at its tether
CmF
In her dung-brown gown of fur
CmF
And her jerkin' of swansdown and leather
Bear would sway on her hind legs;
The organ would grind dregs of song, for the pleasure
Of the children, who'd shriek
Throwing coins at her feet
Then recoiling in terror
CmF
But for now, just dance, darling
CmG
C'mon, will you dance, my darling?
CmEb
Darling, there's a place for us
AbFm
Can we go, before I turn to dust?
CmEb
Oh my darling,
AbCm
There's a place for us
Oh darling
C'mon, will you dance, my darling?
You keep your eyes fixed on the highest hill
Where you'll ever-after eat your fill
Oh my darling, dear, mine
If you dance
Dance, darling, and I love you still
***(The rest of this sounds like it's just dancing around the C
chord in first and second inversions. So, you could just play
different inversions of Cm Cm Cm Bb repeatedly at this part - or
you could play this suggestion below)***
Cm/CBb/CGm/CBb/C
Deep in the night shone a weak and miserly light
Fm/CCm/CAb/CEb/C
Where the monkey shouldered his lamp
Someone had told him the bear had been wandering
A fair piece away from where they were camped
Someone had told him the bear'd been sneaking away
To the seaside caverns, to bathe
And the thought troubled the monkey
For he was afraid of spelunking down in those caves
Also afraid what the village people would say
If they saw the bear in that state;
Lolling and splashing obscenely
Well, it seemed irrational, really; washing that face
Washing that matted and flea-bit pelt
In some sea-spit-shine, old kelp dripping with brine
But monkey just laughed, and he muttered;
When she comes back, Ursala will be bursting with pride
Till I jump up, saying: you've been rolling in muck!
Saying: you smell of garbage and grime!
But far out, far out, by now, by now
Far out, by now, Bear ploughed
'Cause she would not drown:
First the outside-legs of the bear
Up and fell down, in the water, like knobby garters
Then the outside-arms of the bear
Fell off, as easy as if sloughed from boiled tomatoes
Low'red in a genteel curtsy
Bear shed the mantle of her diluvian shoulders;
And, with a sigh,
She allowed the burden of belly to drop like an apron full of boulders
If you could hold up her threadbare
Coat to the light where it's worn translucent in places
You'd see spots where almost every night of the year
Bear had been mending suspending that baseness
Now her coat drags through the water
Bagging, with a life's-worth of hunger, limitless minnows;
In the magnetic embrace
Balletic and glacial of Bear's insatiable shadow;
Left there! Left there! When Bear left Bear.
Left there! Left there! When Bear stepped clear of Bear!
CmAbCm
Sooner or later you'll bury your teeth